December 30, 2009

"A systemic failure has occurred and I consider that totally unacceptable. There was a mix of human and systemic failure that contributed to this potential catastrophic breach of security."

He meant "potentially catastrophic breach of security." Potential needs to be an adverb, because it modifies the adjective catastrophic. It shouldn't be an adjective, which makes it seem to modify the noun breach. It was a breach. If the bomb had gone off, it would have been catastrophic. That's where the potentiality lies.

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Anyway, it's painful to see the scramble to get from Napolitano's "the system worked" to "totally unacceptable ... catastrophic breach."

And speaking of Napolitano's abysmal performance over the weekend... where's Hillary? Was she made Secretary of State for the purpose of hiding her away?

Any Obama Administration foreign affairs failure will also be her failure, dulling her ability to campaign against him in 2012.

I think a safe bet for 2010 will be that Sec. of State Hillary Clinton will not be Secretary of State as of Jan 1st, 2011.

Her only chance at 2012 will be to have a crisis blow up, be unable to prevent it, and blame interference from the White House against her better judgement at the State Department from steering clear of whatever dust up she'll use as an excuse for resigning.

I think any Democrat can see that 2016 (after a potential 8 years of Obama) will be as impossible for them to win as was 2008 for the GOP after 8 years of Bush.

The fact that the bomb was a dud doesn't make the breach of the security system any less severe. The consequences were averted only by luck.

And frankly he's full of shit at any rate.

It was Obama policy that was at fault. It was Obama Administration policy which allows (and still does) people on the TIDE list of suspected terrorists to both receive visas to visit America and to fly on aircraft.

That's his policy. It's a shitty policy. It is an epic-ly stupid policy.

People were doing exactly what he told them to do - which was to allow suspected terrorist on the TIDE list to fly on aircraft with our husbands and children.

I think the first "has" is interesting ("A systematic failure has occurred"). That puts the systematic failure in the present perfect. The failure occurred and may be still going on.

Obama would have done better for himself to say "A systemic failure occurred." Punchier and puts the failure in the past. After this beginning, the next sentence makes it clear that that is what he wants to do. "There was a mix of human and systemic failure that ..." as opposed to "There has been a mix of human and systemic failure..."

Did someone say that he was wearing a SUIT without a tie? I didn't pay much attention, but assumed he was in a sport coat. Only Iranians wear suits without ties.

Careful attention to our President's grammar is going to reveal a lot over the next couple of years. As he is forced to retreat from the prompters and to speak more off the cuff I believe we will see the odd subject and verb disagreeing. Not a big deal, just what you would find with any affirmative action ivy leaguer with a B+ average.

It took Bush days to emerge from vacation after the shoe bomber was nabbed by his fellow fliers and a flight attendant. Even then, he said nothing about it until it finally came up at a press conference - not even the first thing discussed at the conference.

I don't know if my knee-jerk compulsion to dislike Hillary approaches the Sullivan/Palin zenith, but it's got to be close. Ideology be damned, I just can't stand the woman and loath to even listen to her speak.

miller, that being the case, the same principle ought to apply to those posting "this would never have happened under Bush" and "Bush would have handled this differently" comments. It's perfectly legitimate to compare one president with another, and to compare how partisans react to one versus another. It's history, and we refer to it all the time.

The ONLY time I ever see "Bush isn't president anymore!" from conservatives is when the mention of him doesn't serve their interests.

Richard Reid got life plus. I think the underpants guy is subject to 20 years. He is conferring with his lawyer and has apparently decided to clam up. Surprised? But then why would we want to know who might have helped him? Because the system worked.

Oh, and one other thing regarding our last President. Can we stipulate once and for all that he was the cause of all of our problems and the worst, most inarticulate person to walk the earth? And stupid too?

Good. Now, since he is no longer in charge our present administration needs to fix what he broke. Those who voted against the current administration have not yet unleashed a micron of the crazed rage levied against our last leader. Get used to being in charge, quit being victimized by the minority and for the love of God quit thinking that being hypocritical is the worst thing one can be.

Yet ... the Obama Administration chose not to revoke the suspected terrorists visa and prevent him from flying. (The British did revoke his visa in London.)

I agree; Obama's administration is accountable for that. And that's the core.

I'm bored and disgusted by the shallow focus on whether Obama wore a tie, or where he was on Christmas vacation. Criticism of how this breach happened is absolutely fair and on target. The other stuff is hot air.

The Hidabeast has been hiding out, reading a biography of Chester Nimitz.

In last last half of 1941, Nimitz, like a lot of other people, knew America entering the war was only a matter of time and figured that anyone afloat when things blew up would be mothballed for the duration, and so made sure he had a cushy little post ashore stateside.

Hilla is doing the same thing.

PS Too bad Nimitz wasn't on somebody's ship for some reason on 12/7/41. He was the death of a lot of US Marines.

The lack of a tie is important, a marker of sorts. One can say that it isn't important, that people who notice such things and comment on them are being shallow if not, worse, judgmental. But serious topics require serious presentation. I am no less knowledgeable or competent if I call on a client without a tie, but I am a lot less respectful of the client and her needs. So it may be "superfluous" but it is nonetheless indicative.

Janet and Dennis have got to go - one for stupid comments, the other for real failures in information coordination. And if in fact someone made a policy change to no longer put TIDE-listed names on no-fly lists, or at least an "extra search" list, they must be investigated and removed.

So the latest news has it that Nigerian and Amsterdam airports are now going to use full body image scanners for all passengers flying to US.. Presumably we are paying for them, since I doubt they could afford it. But more importantly, wouldn't the next terrorist pick a different airport? Are we supposed to provide these to every airport in the world that has US flights? Crazy.

So does this mean BDS folks will start noting the failures of Obama now? I mean really, lots of people felt like President Bush blew it in terms of DHS and TSA. I don't recall everyone saying, "I'm glad we have the TSA now to make us take off our shoes." No, people were complaining about how pathetically stupid creating a new government bureaucracy was. Instead, we needed to remove what would later be known as the Gorelick Wall, and share intel that would stop the terrorist before they got here. How is President Obama doing that just like President Bush?

"The system worked," Napolitano declared on CNN during questioning about the lapses that let Abdulmutallab and his devices onto the plane. Gibbs used nearly the same language on CBS, saying that "in many ways, this system has worked," without elaborating.

Napolitano has proved herself a hack by repeating the official flack-generated BS, but Gibbs and those responsible for crafting Obama's initial response and weekend talk show spiel should also be shown the door.

Every one who botched their job, before, during and after the attack must be fired from the lowliest to the highest. Otherwise none of them will take their jobs seriously if they are protected by tenure and/or politics.

Obama has a sworn constitutional and moral duty to keep Americans and America safe.PERIOD.FULL.STOP.

This is not politics-as-usual, it's a matter of life and death for those of us who must fly reguarly.

Fire. them. all. now.

The Dems think Americans are pissed off about the healthcare cock up? Just wait until a plane goes down or a terrorist strikes the homeland on their watch; they ain't seen nothing yet.

What a bunch of rightwing wackos on this site! I wonder how they have time to read and post on this blog. Oh yes. I forgot. They all got laid off from their big corporate jobs. HaHa. How's that Republican economic policy working for you?

Key paragraph about Liberal’s alleged compassion & concern for the average guy as opposed to mean-spirited Conservatives who hate the poor & would starve kittens & puppies to pay for greedy private execs’ obscene comp packages:

"Democrats have been surprised that so many downscale voters oppose their big spending programs. Maybe many of those voters have noticed how much of that spending has gone to public-sector union members, leaving the rest of America with a less than happy new year.

Regarding the use of potential, aren't you both wrong? Potential and potentially both imply the possibility that something can still take place. The incident about which the president spoke already transpired, so the only potential left is its use as a learning moment.